The National Archives and Records Administration recovered more than 100 documents bearing classified marks, over 700 pages in total, from an initial batch of 15 boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. , according to a letter from the new government made public with former US president Donald Trump’s legal team.
The numbers shed light on the massive volume of confidential government documents recovered months ago from Trump’s Florida estate, before FBI officials returned there with a search warrant on Aug. 8 and deletion. 11 more secret files.
The subpoena reveals an FBI investigation into possible illegal possession of the records and obstruction of justice.
The documents’ figures were included in a May 10 letter in which acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall told Trump’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, that the Biden administration would not honor defense statements. of the former president for executive privilege over documents.
Corcoran had several weeks earlier requested more time to review the documents in the box before the National Archives made them available to the FBI so he could determine if any particular documents were classified. executive power or not and are therefore exempt from disclosure, according to the letter.
No privileges, Biden admin says
The letter was published Tuesday on the website of the National Archives.
It was released Monday night on a website run by John Solomon, who was appointed by Trump in June as one of his designated representatives at the National Archives and is a journalist. conservatives and allies of Trump.
The letter from the archivist stating that the Justice Department has found “no precedent for asserting executive privilege of a former President against a sitting President to prevent the latter” was obtained from The National Archives of Presidential Records belongs to the federal government and is necessary for the government’s current business.
As a result, the letter said, claims of executive privilege will not be respected and the FBI will be granted access to the documents within the next few days.
The National Archives has asked the Justice Department to investigate after saying it found classified documents among 15 boxes of files it obtained from Mar-a-Lago that it believes should have been Trump. had to transfer at the end of his term in the White House. .
Some classified top secrets
In the letter, the archivist Wall wrote that in those boxes, the National Archives had identified items marked as top secret as well as information about special access programs.
It said the filing includes more than 100 documents marked as classified, “including more than 700 pages,” and cited an excerpt from separate correspondence from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division stating that “the Access to documents is not only necessary for the purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation” but also to “assess possible damage” due to the manner in which documents are transported and stored.
Corcoran did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the letter.
